The review of Robert Browning's _Inn Album_ here mentioned appears in
Vanity Fair, Dec. 11, 1875. The matter of the poem is praised; the
"slating" is only for the form and metres.
[_Edinburgh, December 1875._]
Well, I am hardy! Here I am in the midst of this great snowstorm,
sleeping with my window open and _smoking_ in my cold tub in the morning
so as it would do your heart good to see. Moreover I am in pretty good
form otherwise. Fontainebleau lags; it has turned out more difficult
than I expected in some places, but there is a deal of it ready, and (I
think) straight.
I was at a concert on Saturday and heard Halle and Norman Neruda play
that Sonata of Beethoven's you remember, and I felt very funny. But I
went and took a long spanking walk in the dark and got quite an appetite
for dinner. I did; that's not bragging.
As you say, a concert wants to be gone to _with_ someone, and I know
who. I have done rather an amusing paragraph or two for Vanity Fair on
the _Inn Album_. I have slated R. B. pretty handsomely. I am in a
desperate hurry; so good-bye.--Ever your faithful friend,